City local governments have been facing multiple challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic to secure adequate financial resources for response and recovery. This report assesses the impact of the pandemic on local governments' financial situations through cross-country analysis and comparison....

Sri Lanka is now a middle income country and already at the advanced stages of aging and disease transitions. This report aims to stimulate policy dialogue for control and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and to improve the quality of NCD services to the people of Sri Lanka. It...

"The authors describe the main trends of Brazil's fiscal policy during the past decade and analyze (1) the ability to raise the primary surplus in response to external shocks, (2) the pro-cyclical nature of fiscal policy, and (3) the long-run impact of government expenditure composition and...

This report examines the fiscal prospects of major units of sub-national government in the voivodship (province) of Mazowieckie and proposes a series of reforms in recurrent spending and capital investment planning. Mazowieckie, the seat of Warsaw, is the heart of the Polish economy. While...

Already one of the poorest regions in Indonesia, the island of Nias was badly affected by the twin disasters of the 26 December 2004 tsunami and a devastating earthquake that struck three months later, on 28 March 2005. Now, more than two years after the disasters and despite the significant...

Agriculture sector growth in Myanmar averaged 2.5 percent during 2009/10-2016/17. This compares to only half of the growth rate in neighboring China and Thailand at the same stage of their economic development and less than one-third of nonagricultural growth in Myanmar. This low agricultural...

"Regulation is purportedly enacted to serve specific social purposes. In reality, however, it follows a more complex political economy process, where legitimate social goals are mixed with the objectives of particular interest groups. Whatever its justification and objectives, regulation can...